Bring Broadway to your classroom at no cost!
MTC is offering select productions from our archives to high schools through our Lights Up! Library. The Lights Up! Library Unit of Study includes:
- National Core Arts Standards-aligned classroom activities that engage students and illuminate the play under study
- Writing prompts to ignite your students’ imaginations, foster critical thinking, and develop their writing skills
- Supplemental resources which may include: biographies of the playwright and other key artists; relevant historical background information, articles, and photographs; and, recorded video interviews with artists involved with the production
- Access to a video recording of a complete Manhattan Theatre Club Broadway or off-Broadway production for one calendar month (closed captioning available)
Titles
By Henrik Ibsen
A new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Directed by Doug Hughes
In this fast-paced, two-hour thriller, Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Boyd Gaines) discovers a toxic secret that threatens the health of his entire community. The doctor expects to be hailed as a hero, but his brother, Mayor Peter Stockmann (Richard Thomas), believes the information will destroy the town, forcing the men into a passionate confrontation of political will and personal ethics.
Key Themes: Truth versus expediency, the blurry line between the majority and the mob, the complex psychology of an idealist, and the emotional cost of standing alone.
Runtime: 105 minutes
Click here for Classroom Activities.
By Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Whitney White
This dazzling world premiere welcomes you into Jaja’s bustling hair braiding shop in Harlem where every day, a lively and eclectic group of West African immigrant hair braiders are creating masterpieces on the heads of neighborhood women. During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed. The uncertainty of their circumstances simmers below the surface of their lives and when it boils over, it forces this tight-knit community to confront what it means to be an outsider on the edge of the place they call home.
Key themes: Resilience, cultural bonds, the power of sisterhood, the plight of undocumented immigrants
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes
Runtime: 90 minutes
Click here for Classroom Activities.
This production is unavailable until November 2024 in: Washington, DC; Maryland; and, Virginia.
This production is unavailable until January 2025 in: California.
This production is unavailable until February 2025 in: Illinois; Indiana; and, Wisconsin.
By August Wilson
Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Set in the early 1970s, this richly textured piece follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’s son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last.
Key Themes: Responsibility to oneself, one’s family, and the community; the struggle for survival and stability — economic and personal — amidst family and societal dysfunction
Content Advisory: Mature language
Runtime: 121 minutes
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By Amy Herzog
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Captivating, affecting and compassionate, it’s the story of a single mother in an impossible family situation. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, Mary Jane relies on unflagging optimism and humor, along with the wisdom of the women around her who have become a makeshift family, to take on each new day. But will inner strength and newfound friendships be enough to see her through?
Key Themes: The indomitable power of maternal love; the many facets of womanhood; the failures of the American medical system; finally, the search for life’s meaning in the face of calamity
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes
Runtime: 95 minutes
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By Qui Nguyen
Directed by May Adrales
Qui Nguyen, the wildly inventive playwright (and screenwriter for Marvel and Disney) known for his use of pop culture, pop music and puppetry, reunites with his frequent director, May Adrales, for this funny, sexy and brash new play. A young Vietnamese family attempts to put down roots in Arkansas, a place as different from home as it gets. A mom and dad balance big hopes and low-wage jobs, as old flings threaten to pull them apart. It all makes for a bumpy road to the American dream. From the world of Nguyen’s Vietgone, with its comic book and action movie influences, comes a play that melds a deeply personal story with the playwright’s trademark, killer humor. The New York Times hails the writer’s work as “culturally savvy comedy,” and this production shows you why.
Key Themes: The immigrant experience, assimilation versus cultural identity, the need for human connection
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes, drug use
Runtime: 2 hours
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By Joshua Harmon
Directed by David Cromer
Winner of the 2022 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best New Off-Broadway Play, Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic bursts onto Broadway after MTC’s highly acclaimed extended, sold-out Off-Broadway run. A celebrated work by the author of Bad Jews and Significant Other, which The Wall Street Journal calls “easily the finest play of the Broadway season.” The Chicago Tribune calls Prayer for the French Republic “gripping and epic,” and New York Stage Review gives it five stars, stating “Prayer packs a wallop.” Directing is David Cromer, a Tony Award® winner for The Band’s Visit.
Key Themes: Antisemitism, identity, the role of religion and tradition in modern life, the meaning of home, the power of familial love
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes; discussions of antisemitism, genocide, hate crimes, sexual assault, suicide
Runtime: 3 hours+
Click here for Classroom Activities.
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
In 2008 Detroit, a small automotive factory is on the brink of foreclosure, and a tight knit family of workers hangs in the balance. With uncertainty everywhere, the line between blue collar and white collar becomes blurred, and this working family must reckon with their personal loyalties, their instincts for survival and their ultimate hopes for humanity.
Key Themes: Loyalty and connection despite hardship; confronting social injustice and inequity.
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes
Runtime: 110 minutes
Click here for Classroom Activities.
By Qui Nguyen
Directed by May Adrales
A modern twist on the All-American love story, Qui Nguyen’s (She Kills Monsters) new play Vietgone pulses with contemporary energy. It’s the classic story of boy meets girl – except this boy and girl are refugees from the Vietnam War newly settled in a relocation camp inside Middle America. Borrowing elements from the world of up-to-the-minute popular culture to recreate the playwright’s own parents’ meeting, Vietgone ranges from hilarity to heart-wrenching drama. Nguyen and director May Adrales (Luce) skip through time and around the globe to present a fresh theatrical take on a moving account of one real family’s history.
Key Themes: Immigration, dislocation, assimilation, legacy, and the hunger for human connection
Content Advisory: Mature language and themes, sex, substance use
Runtime: 2 hours
Click here for Classroom Activities.
- Please download, read, and print the full Lights Up! License and Terms of Use.
- We are able to provide classroom activities and one month’s access to a performance recording to high school classrooms at no cost.
- The classroom activities are provided as PDF documents available for download on this webpage at any time.
- We are unable to provide the scripts to the plays. Most are available for purchase at low cost in the commercial marketplace.
- Access to the performance recording commences on the first day of your Unit of Study month and concludes on the last day of that month. We are unable to offer access spanning two months (i.e. March 15-April 14).
- Passwords required to view performance recordings are changed at 5pm EST/EDT on the last weekday of each month.
- Performance recording links and passwords will be emailed to the teacher on the first weekday of the month for which they have registered.
- Performance recordings may be viewed only during regularly scheduled class time in classrooms or assembly spaces on your campus. Viewing credentials may not be shared with students for individual viewing at home or on social media.
- Performance recordings tend to be a full stage wide angle with some close-ups.
- Teachers are required to complete and submit a usage survey at the end of the Unit of Study month.